a carefully researched scoop on news not usually available on any other media channel or in many cases noted before it appears in conventional media from an insiders perspective. The views are that of the author and are not guided by any other person or organization. A truly unique and independent opinion of SRI LANKA TODAY

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Understanding youth preferences is the start to a new education policy

Youth aspirations and intentions now are
very different to what they were in the past, but yet our education system has
not come up with the changes needed to be relevant to 2015 and beyond, still
stuck in 1945. We now have to think of Sri Lanka in 2065 and to that end, must
make the relevant structural changes to education to reflect this aspirational
change.

While the increasing Globalization sees
many commonalities amongst youth, their fulfillment depends on the individual
and unique traits in the Country they happen to live in and the opportunities
afforded there. To that extent the Education system must be tailored to the
unique circumstance of the country.

Today’s youth will move out of the home
early in life to some far off place. Their Educational program must reflect
this and enable them to do this with ease. Many will work for themselves within
a few years of gaining experience in some field through employment in an
organization, be it in the public or private sector.

It is this future in mind that we need
to be aware of when designing new educational opportunities and teaching
programs. It goes without saying that the most important thing that we can give
our youth is a working knowledge of English which will increase their exposure
to the world over that they now have.

We can be as rich as a small nation like Norway that has
its own language, and while the citizens are proud of their language to communicate
with their fellow citizens they are all very fluent in English to communicate with
the rest of the world and widen their horizons
both for employment and travel. Why can’t we also do so? If we had made this sea
change we would be far ahead of Norway and not have to lag behind.

Unfortunately we don’t have educators or
administrators with a vision to see this obvious gap. They are still merely paying
lip service, and how long must our lips be to service them?

Time for a new system, that teaches everyone a minimum
level till they are 16. It MUST be interactive, interesting, imaginative, creative
and most of all congruent with the new aspirations of young people as outlined in
the link above.

The link refers to youth whose ideas have been surveyed and found out their hopes and behavior patterns, and
we can tailor make ourNATIONAL EDUCATION PLAN with reference to the aspirational lifestyle
of our youth.

Put simply don’t teach religion at school, make the children want
to learn religion of their own accord and seek to learn from Temples instead. They will learn more this way instead of hating the subject! This is only an example and I did not pick on religion for any other purpose other than make a point.